This report outlines the steps the Community Fund established to create an effective, case-based approach to disaster outreach. The Survivor's Fund was established immediately after the attacks on 9/11 by community leaders in the Washington DC area. The Fund closed earlier in March of 2008 after it had raised more than $25 million from local residents to help the families devastated by the attacks.

This is a report released by George Mason Univ.'s Mercatus Center on Global Prosperity Initiative. It talks about the breakdown of reliance on a centralized federal response system used in cases like Katrina and how the private sector was much more resilient in helping to respond and recover. At the heart of this argument however is not that the private sector should take over disaster response, it's that because many private sector stakeholders have huge and effective supply chain and infrastructure in place, they can augment a public sector response.

In 2006/2007, the World Health Organization released a report on incorporating midwifery and nursing into disaster situations in the developed and developing worlds. The report found that midwives and nurses play a trusted and integral role in emergency response within disaffected and depressed communities which typically have few resources.

This white paper, released by First Water Inc., outlines the ways counties can hope to plan and execute an effective program to provide potable water to counties in the U.S. who have been affected by a disaster.

According to this annual report, the NYDIS: "New York Disaster Interfaith Services (NYDIS) is a 501(c)(3) faith-based federation of service providers and charitable organizations who work in partnership to provide disaster readiness, response, and recovery services for New York City. Our mission is to coordinate, develop, and support these disaster services to mitigate the harm of, prepare for, and respond to all hazards – both natural and human-caused. NYDIS provides secular human services to faith communities and individuals alike, regardless of membership status or religious affiliation. In times of crisis, NYDIS convenes its leadership to network with government agencies and local, state, and national organizations involved in disaster management."

**NB** Some pictures in this report may appear dark because of compression. To download the original report (5.6 Mb) you can visit this link: http://www.iclei.org/documents/USA/download/0709climateGUIDEweb.pdf

This report released by the ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability - addressing the steps all sizes of communities can take to help incorporate changing climate patterns into their overall preparedness and response systems. Topics include possible pandemic, drought, severe storms and emergency response challenges and possible solutions.

This case study published by Manpower, outlines the cooperation between the public and private sectors which can connect existing resources to challenges faced during an initial recovery after a disaster. Manpower was able to provide the state of Florida's smaller communities with a workforce using residents from the affected communities which helped to establish a strong foundation for economic and job force recovery.

This report, released by the Chemical Safety Board found that a lack of corporate preparedness and foresight led to a faulty response which led to the death of one employee as well as 14 injured.

Volunteer emergency responder recruitment and retention |

The U.S. Fire Administration released this report detailing the current state of volunteer recruitment for their emergency response services in the U.S. The report found that citizens were still willing to contribute time and resources so long as a certain set of criteria were in place.

The Department of Homeland Security developed the outreach program to provide training for state and local first responders and also to deliver those capabilities in a cost-effective and efficient way.

After the earthquakes struck Hawaii in 2006, communications lines, as well as the power grid, succumbed to massive amounts of damage cutting government and responders' ability to communicate. Media officials had a hard time sending out messages as well while most of the islands' communities were without power for some time. This is a report looking into ways to mitigating earthquake damage and an assessment of the response.

The American College of Physicians released this paper to recommend ways to prepare the medical community for pandemic response. In the paper, the ACP supports local task forces and the use of volunteer physicians and health care providers in coordinated, federally-led response efforts on the local level.

An outline of how to credential first responders in the field so that identification during a response is quick and efficient. The credentialing would create a baseline of operations so that emergency management operators would know the who/what/when/where/how of the response.

County emergency management is important in the larger response context. This report by the National Association of Counties looks into counties' abilities to handle disaster response operations and the current state of county response preparedness in the U.S..

After Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast region, federal, state and local governments as well as community, private, relief organizations and academic institutions asked what are the implications of such a large disaster on the affected communities and the nation as a whole. This Brookings Institute paper handles some of those questions.

The ID program would expedite identification of first responders from multiple agencies during a disaster. Having the ID cards linked to a computer network would facilitate quick identification to reduce the amount of confusion.

After large earthquakes shook Hawaiian communities in October, 2006, the state's government released a report detailing best practices to increase state and local first responders' abilities to communicate and respond during a disaster when the information infrastructure has been damaged.

During the summer of 2006, the Institutes of Medicine released a series of reports which looked at the nation's emergency rooms' abilities to handle surge capacity and the general state of health of those emergency rooms. The IOM recommended that in order to be prepared to handle large-scale disasters, hospitals must increase their ER capacity.

The Center for American Progress has found that less than fifteen states or cities in the U.S. "have the capability to administer stockpiled vaccines or other drugs on a large scale," and that "20 percent of Americans live in states where hospitals lack the medical equipment necessary when handling a severe health crisis."

The National Strategy for Homeland Security, released in July 2002, outlined the initial move by the federal government to establish a national network dedicated to protecting and preparing the U.S. against the threat of a terrorist attack or a large-scale natural disaster. The creation of the Department of Homeland Security amalgamated more than 22 pre-existing federal agencies under one aegis.

The National Response Plan was released in 2004. It outlines the process and fundamental guidelines for the communication and coordination of federal, state and local emergency management operations. In the words of DHS, the plan "establishes a comprehensive all-hazards approach to enhance the ability of the United States to manage domestic incidents."

The National Governors Association released its flu pandemic preparedness report to help to give state and local governments resources and tools needed to formulate specific pandemic mitigation and preparedness plans as well as to begin to develop alternative methods of quarantining and spread control.

The International Association of Fire Chiefs in cooperation with the U.S. Fire Administration released a final report in 2006 that looked at hazardous materials response, incident planning and management as well as methods on training departments to handle better emergencies involving hazardous materials.

The Forgotten Homeland is a task force report released by the Century Foundation that focuses on homeland security efforts in place in the U.S. and the state of homeland preparedness. The report came to three main conclusions: that urban areas are the most at risk of a terrorist attack; that public/private partnerships will be the most effective homeland security initiatives; and that the federal government must work to improve their performance on responsibilities such as port security and border protection.

Trust for America's Health is a non-partisan, non-profit organization that works to assess the nation's ability to respond to medical disasters and disease prevention. The report released looked at the current state of bioterror preparedness in the U.S. five years after the attacks on 9/11.

The National Interoperability Baseline Survey was mandated by the Department of Homeland Security and addresses interoperable communications efforts being implemented across the U.S. The report also helps to provide a national picture of advances in improvements to public safety wireless communications.

After the attacks on September 11, 2001 the Department of Defense released it's Homeland Security initiatives that would focus the government agency's role in protecting the U.S. against the threat of terrorism. In the Strategy for Homeland Defense and Civil Support, the DOD outlines how it would protect the country as well as respond to a major disaster.

This guide was written with mass casualty events in mind - it provides information regarding evacuation, surge capacity, response, containment and quarantine methods to help communities develop effective plans for pandemics, terrorist incidents and other MCE's.

This report released by the Center for Strategic and International Studies looks at the evolving responsibilities of the National Guard after the attacks on 9/11 and the subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of note is the traditional participation of local first responders in the National Guard who, because of the wars, are no longer in their communities.

The Department of Homeland Security released these planning scenarios for fifteen different events which would require cooperation, response and containment from all levels of government as well as help from community-based organizations, the private sector and individual citizens. The National Planning Scenarios were written to provide "the design basis for exercises throughout the Nation," to help prepare for catastrophic events.

This RAND Corporation report focuses on state and local health departments' public health preparedness plans and emergency management guidelines. The report also looks at the relationship between state and local health departments and whether those relationships help to build robust emergency response capabilities.